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erected a funeral pile, as if wishing by a solemn | afterwards instigated him to murder Ægisthus sacrifice to appease the manes of Sichæus, to whom and Clytemnestra. When Orestes was tortured she had vowed eternal fidelity. When all was by the furies on account of these murders, Electra prepared, she stabbed herself on the pile in pre- was informed by the oracle of Delphi that he was sence of her people; and by this uncommon action slain by a priestess of Diana; this so excited her obtained the name of Dido, or "the valiant wo- that she was about to kill Iphigenia, who had just man," instead of Elissa. Virgil and others repre- entered the temple as a priestess of Diana, with a sent her as visited by Æneas, after whose depart- firebrand, when Orestes appeared. Electra afterure she destroyed herself from disappointed love; wards married Pylades, the friend of Orestes. but this is a poetical fiction, as Æneas and Dido did not live in the same age. After her death, Dido was honoured as a deity by her subjects. She flourished about B. C. 980.

DINAH,

THE only daughter of the patriarch Jacob. Her seduction by prince Shechem; his honourable proposal of repairing the injury by marriage, and the prevention of the fulfilment of this just intention by the treachery and barbarity of her bloody brethren Simeon and Levi, are recorded in Gen. xxxiv. But every character in the Bible has its mission as an example or a warning, and Dinah's should be the beacon to warn the young of her sex against levity of manners and eagerness for society. She went out to see the daughters of the land;" the result of her visit was her own ruin, and involving two of her brothers in such deeds of revenge as brought a curse upon them and their posterity. And thus the idle curiosity or weak vanity of those women who are always seeking excitement and amusement, may end most fatally for themselves and those nearest connected and best beloved. Dinah lived B. C. 1732.

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DIOTIMA,

ONE of the learned women who taught Socrates, as he himself declared, the "divine philosophy." She was supposed to have been inspired with the spirit of prophecy; and Socrates learned of her how from corporeal beauty to find out that of the soul, of the angelical mind, and of God. She lived in Greece, about B. C. 468.

E.
EGEE,

QUEEN of the African Amazons, of whom it is related, that she passed from Lybia into Asia, with a powerful army, with which she made great ravages. Opposed by Laomedon, king of Troy, she set his power at defiance; and, charged with an immense booty, retook the way to her own country. In repassing the sea, she perished with her whole army.

ELECTRA,

DAUGHTER of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, was the sister of Iphigenia and Orestes. Her step-father Ægisthus would not allow her to marry any of her suitors who were princes, lest her children should avenge the murder of Agamemnon; but he married her to a man of humble rank in Argos, who left her a virgin. At the time of her father's death she saved her brother Orestes, and

ERINNA,

A GRECIAN lady cotemporary with Sappho; composed several poems, of which some fragments are extant in the "Carmina Novem Poetarum Seminarum," published in Antwerp, in 1568. She lived about B. C. 595. One of her poems, called "The Distaff," consisted of three hundred hexameter lines. It was thought that her verses rivalled Homer's. She died at the age of nineteen, unmarried.

There is another poetess of the same name mentioned by Eusebius, who flourished in the year B. C. 354. This appears to have been the poetess mentioned by Pliny as having celebrated Myro in her poems.

ESTHER,

A JEWISH maiden, whose great beauty raised her to the throne of Persia, whereby she saved her countrymen from total extermination. Esther was an orphan, brought up by her cousin Mordecai, who was of the tribe of Benjamin, the greatgrandson of Kish, one of the captives taken from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Mordecai was probably born in Babylon; but he was a devout worshipper of the God of Israel. He had adopted Esther as his own daughter; and when after king Ahasuerus had repudiated his first queen Vashti, and chosen the "fair and beautiful" Jewish maid, then her uncle, who had strictly enjoined her not to let it be made known to the king that she was a Jewess, left Babylon for Susa, where he often waited at the gate to see his niece and hear of her welfare.

About this time Ahasuerus passed an ordinance, importing, that none of his household, under penalty of death, should come into his presence while he was engaged in the administration of justice. If, however, he extended the golden sceptre towards the intruder, the penalty was to be remitted. Not long after, two of the chamberlains of the king conspired against him; the plot was disclosed to Mordecai, and, through the medium of Esther, the king was apprised of his danger. Mordecai received no reward for this service, except having the transaction entered in the records of the state, and being allowed the privilege of admission to the palace.

Haman, an Amalekite, now became the chief favourite of king Ahasuerus ;-Mordecai, probably proud of his Jewish blood, and despising the base parasite, refused to bow down to him in the gate, as did all the king's servants. This affront, so offensive to Haman's pride, determined him not only to destroy Mordecai, but all the captive Jews throughout the wide dominions of king Ahasuerus.

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he perished through the ambition of his mother, as well as his brother and successor, Perdiccas. Philip, who succeeded them, preserved his crown from all her attempts, on which she fled to Iphi crates, the Athenian general. What became of her afterwards, is not known.gen od• Don'etd> former erodto ban finiỵ, pazild to festeal ".com tregoh seodu rota se EURYDICE,

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The favourite made such representations to the king concerning the Jews, that a proclamation for their entire destruction was promulgated, odit f The result is known to all who have read the "Book of Esther;" how this pious and beautiful ⚫ woman, trusting in heaven and earnestly employing her own influence, succeeded in defeating the malice of the Amalekite; Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai,' WIFE of Aridæus, the natural son of Philip, The relationship of Esther and Mordecai was made king of Macedonia, who, after the death of Alexknown to the king, who gave Haman's office to ander the Great, was made king for a short time. the noble Jew, and from that time took him into Arideus had not full possession of his senses, and his confidential service and promoted him to the was governed entirely by his wife. After a reign highest honours. Between the king and his lovely of seven years, Aridæus and Eurydice were put wife the most perfect confidence was restored. to death, B. C. 319, by Olympias, mother of AlexIndeed from what is said by the prophet Nehe- ander the Great, who had conquered them.T miah, who wrote some ten or twelve years later, food id : medood? ning of motor has and who represented the queen as sitting beside him yd quißVE, ardener lo fazoqora the king when petition was made concerning the THE crowning work of creation, the first woman, Jews, we must infer she was ever after his coun-the mother of our race. Her history, in the sacred -sellor and good angel, 190m mojltora zi srodT Book, is told in few words; but the mighty conséThe learned are not agreed who this Ahasuerus-quences of her life will be felt through time, and was; Josephus asserts; that he is the same as the through eternity. We shall endeavour to give Artaxerxes Longimanus of profane history and what we consider a just idea of her character and the Septuagint, throughout the whole book of the influence her destiny exercises over her sex Esther, translates Ahasuerus by Artaxerxes. In- and racech odt 998 of two 14977 91% ** dainos deed the great kindness' shown by Artaxerxes to The Bible records that the Lord God förmed [the Jews, can hardly be accounted for, except on man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into the supposition that they had so powerful an advó-his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a cate as Esther to intercede for them Some wri-living soul! Yet he was not perfect then, because ters, however, assert that he is the same as Darius Hystaspes, king of Persia, B. C: 521, who allowed f the Jews to resume the building of their temple. F But whoever the Ahasuerus of this history might be, its interest centres in Esther. In her example the influence of woman's pious patriotism is exhibited and rewarded. Esther was deeply indebted her unto the man.” (And Adam said, This is now to Mordecai for his care and zeal in her educá-bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall - tion; [still, had she not possessed, and exercised be called woman, because she was taken out of I too, the highest powers of woman's mind faith man." It was this twain in unity, to which alluin God, and love, self-sacrificing love for her peó-sion is made in the 1st chap. of Genesis, 27th and sple the Jews must have perished. This wonderful deliverance has, from that time to this more than twenty-three centuries-been celebrated by the Jews, as a festival called the days of Purim,” - or, more generally, “Esther's Feast." This great triumph occurred B. C, 509.1 rode „atrob do vtín 20 geitert simba sift ribe 9 e27 6 -ot onpa- 265 EURYDICE,

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God said," It is not good for man to be alone."
Would a perfect being a have needed a helper?
So God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam;
and while he slept God took one of the ribs of the
man; "And the rib which the Lord God had
taken from man,
made he a woman, and brought

28th verses. The creation is there represented as finished, and the "image of God was mate and female;" that is, comprising the moral excellences of man and woman; thus united, they formed the perfect being called Adam.

It is only when we analyze the record of the particular process of creation, and the history of the fall, and its punishment, that we can learn - AN Illyrian lady, is commended by Plutarch, what were the peculiar characteristics of man and for applying herself to study, though already ad-woman as each came from the hand of God. Thus -vanced in years, and a native of a barbarous coun-guided, the man seems to have represented try, that she might be enabled to educate her -children. She consecrated to the muses an in+scription, in which this circumstance is mentioned. roit at 1 aot :) neitorement odt mod

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strength, the woman beauty; she reason, she feeling; the knowledge, she wisdom he the material or earthly, she the spiritual or heavenly in human ymus of dw T

nature.

That woman was superior to man in some way is proven, first, by the care and preparation in forming her; and secondly, by analogy. Every

EURYDICE, na „otete siz WIFE of Amyntas, king of Macedonia, in the fifth century before Christ, was the mother of vAlexander, Perdiccas, and Philip, father of Alex-step in the (création / had been in the ascending cander the Great, and of one daughter, Euryone. From a criminal love she had for her daughter's chusband, she conspired against Amyntas; but he discovered the plot, through one of his daughters by a former wife, and forgave her. On the death of Amyntas, Alexander ascended the throne, but

scale, Was the last rétrograde? It must-have been, unless the woman's nature was more refined, pure, spiritual, a nearer assimilation with the angelic, a link in the chaine connecting earth with heaven, more elevated than the nature of man. Adam was endowed with the perfection of "physi

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cal strength, which his wife had not. He did not require her help in subduing the earth. He also had the large understanding which could grasp and comprehend all subjects relating to this world and was equal to its government. He gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field ;" and that these names were significant of the nature of all the animals, thus subordinated to him, there can be no doubt. Still, the sacred narrative goes on "But for Adam there was not found any help meet for him;" that is, a created being who could comprehend him and help him where he was deficient,—in his spiritual nature. For this help woman was formed, and while the twain were one, Adam was perfect. It was not till this holy union was dissolved by sin that the distinctive natures of the masculine and the feminine were exhibited.

Let us examine this exhibition. Adam and his wife were placed/in the garden of Eden, where grew the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” the fruit of which they were forbidden to eat on pain of death. The woman, being deceived by the serpent, or spirit of evil, into the belief that the penalty would not be inflicted, and that the fruit would confer on them, the human pair, a higher degree of spiritual knowledge than they then possessed" Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," was the promise of the subtle tempter she took of the fruit, and did eat, and gaye also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Such is the precise account of the fall. Commentators have imputed weakness of mind to the woman, because the tempter assailed her. But does it not rather show she was the spiritual leader, the most difficult to be won, and the serpent knew if he could gain her the result was sure? Remember that her husband was with her

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plied deep affections and acute sensibilities, requiring endowments of a spiritual and intellectual character. She was suffer sorrow" for her children, and be subjected to the rule of her husband, to whom her desire shall be;" that is, her hopes of escaping from the ignorance and inferiority to which he would consign her, must be centred on winning, by her love, gentleness and submission, his heart; and through the influence of her purer mind, infused into their children, finally spiritualize his harder and more earthly nature. Her doom was sad, but not degrading, for though like an angel with wings bound, she was to minister to her husband, yet a promise of wondrous blessings for her seed preceded her sentence. Not so with Adam. He had shown at every step that his mind was of a different stamp. He had disobeyed God from a lower motive; and when arraigned; instead of humility, he showed fear and selfishness. He sought to excuse himself by throwing the blame on his wife. True, he was not deceived His worldly wisdom had not been dazzled by the idea of gaining heavenly wis dom, which he probably did not covet or estimate as she did. His sentence was in accordance with his character, addressed to the material rather than the spiritual in human nature. Like a felon her was condemned to hard labour for life, on the ground cursed for his sake. And he was further degraded by reference to his origin from the dust and consigned to death and the grave! Not a ray of hope was given the man, save through the promise made to the woman lu Pom poma

the serpent addressed them both, “Ye shall be as gods,” &c. Now, is it not reasonable to sup pose that the nature (the human pair was then one,) best qualified to judge of these high subjects, would respond? The decision was, apparently, left to her. The woman led; the man followed. Which showed the greatest spiritual power, the controlling energy of mind? In the act of disobe dience the conduct of the woman displayed her superior nature. The arguments used by the tempter were addressed to the higher faculties of: mind as her predominant feelings, namely, the desire for knowledge and wisdom. With her these arguments prevailed; while man, according to his own showing, had no higher motives than gratifying his sensuous inclinations; he ate, because, hist wife gave him the fruit. Precisely such conduct | as we might expect from, a lower nature towards a higher; compliance without reason or from inferior considerations show diw olti a -We next come to the trial of the guilty pair, and their sentence from the mouth of their Maker. Every word confirms the truth of the position, that woman's moral sense was of a higher standard than man's. She was first sentenced. Meekly and truly had she confessed her fault; the unerring sign: of a noble spirit betrayed into sin when striving for glory. Her temporal punishment im

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Does it not mark her purer spiritual nature that, even after the fall, when she was placed under her husband's control; she still held his im mortal destiny, so to speak, in her keeping? To her what a gracious promise of future glory wasi given Her seed was to triumph over the tempter: which had deceived her. She was not only to be delivered from the power of the curse, but from? her was to come the deliverer of her earthly ruler, maner how oda tedt,goltan #ilm frontero

After the sentence was promulgated, we find instant acknowledgement that the mysterious union, which had made this first man and woman one being in Adam, was altered. There was no longer the unity of soul; there could not be where the wife had been subjected to the husband. And then it was that Adam gave to woman her specific / name Eve, or the Mother, idqnozd od

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Thus was motherhood predicated as the true field of woman's mission, where her spiritual nature might be developed, and her intellectual agency could bear sway; where her moral sense might be effective in the progress of mankind, and her mental triumphs would be won. Eve at once comprehended this, and expressed its truth in the sentiment, uttered on the birth of her first-born, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." When her hopes for Cain were destroyed by the fratercidal tragedy, she, woman-like, still clung to the spiritual promise, transferring it to Seth. The time of her death is not recorded. be AB

According to Blair's chronology, Adam and Eve were created on Friday, October 28th, 4004 B. C

F.

FLORA,

A FAMOUS Courtezan of Rome, who loved Pompey so devotedly, that though at his entreaties she consented to receive another lover, yet when Pompey took that opportunity to discontinue his visits entirely, she fell into such despair as showed she had the true woman's heart, although so polluted by her degradation that its holiest feelings were made to become her severest tortures. Flora was so beautiful that Cecilius Metellus had her picture drawn and kept in the temple of Castor and Pollux.

FULVIA,

AN extraordinary Roman lady, wife of Marc Antony, had, as Paterculus expresses it, nothing of her sex but the body; for her temper and courage breathed only policy and war. She had two husbands before she married Antony - Clodius, the great enemy of Cicero, and Curio, who was killed while fighting in Africa, on Cæsar's side, before the battle of Pharsalia. After the victory, which Octavius and Antony gained at Philippi over Brutus and Cassius, Antony went to Asia to settle the affairs of the East. Octavius returned to Rome, where, falling out with Fulvia, he could not decide the quarrel but with the sword. She retired to Præneste, and withdrew thither the senators and knights of her party; she armed herself in person, gave the word to her soldiers, and harangued them bravely.

Bold and violent as Antony was, he met his match in Fulvia. "She was a woman," says Plutarch, "not born for spinning or housewifery, not one that would be content with ruling a private husband, but capable of advising a magistrate, or ruling the general of an army." Antony had the courage, however, to show great anger at Fulvia for levying war against Octavius; and when he returned to Rome, he treated her with so much contempt and indignation, that she went to Greece, and died there of a disease occasioned by her grief.

She participated with, and assisted her cruel husband, during the massacres of the triumvirate, and had several persons put to death, on her own authority, either from avarice or a spirit of revenge. After Cicero was beheaded, Fulvia caused his head to be brought to her, spit upon it, drawing out the tongue, which she pierced several times with her bodkin, addressing to the lifeless Cicero, all the time, the most opprobrious language. What a contrast to the character of Octavia, the last wife of Marc Antony!

G.

GLAPHYRA,

A PRIESTESS of Bellona's temple in Cappadocia, and a daughter of Archelaus, the high-priest of Bellona, is celebrated for her beauty and intrigue. Although she was married and had two sons,

Sisinna and Archelaus, yet she fell in love with Marc Antony, and he gave her the kingdom of Cappadocia for her children. This infidelity of Antony so displeased his wife Fulvia, that she resolved to revenge herself by taking the same

course.

Glaphyra had a granddaughter of the same name, who was a daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and married Alexander, son of Herod and Mariamne, by whom she had two sons. After the death of Alexander she married her brotherin-law Archelaus.

H. HAGAR,

AN Egyptian woman, the handmaid of Sarai, whom she gave to her husband Abram as a concubine or left-handed wife. Such arrangements were not uncommon in those old times. When the honoured wife was childless, she would give her favourite slave or maid-servant to her husband, and the children born of this connection were considered as belonging to the real wife.

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It had been promised Abram that his seed should become a great nation; but his wife Sarai had borne him no children. She was nearly eighty years of age; her husband ten years older. Despairing of becoming herself the mother of the promised seed, she would not stand in the way of God's blessing to her husband so she gave him Hagar. It was, like all plans of human device that controvert the laws of God, very unfortunate for the happiness of the parties. Hagar was soon uplifted by this preference; and believing herself the mother of the promised heir, she despised her mistress; was rebuked, and fled into the wilderness. There the angel of the Lord met her, and commanded her to return to Sarai, and be submissive. Hagar seems to have obeyed the divine command at once; and all was, for a time, well. Ishmael was born, and for twelve years was the only child, the presumptive heir of one of the richest princes of the East. But at the birth of Isaac, the true heir, all Hagar's glory vanished. The bondwoman and her son were finally sent forth from the tents of the patriarch, with "bread and a bottle of water." Hagar carried these on her shoulder, a poor, outcast mother, the victim of circumstances and events she could not change or control. But God hears the cry of affliction, and all who turn to Him in their hearts will be comforted. Thus was Hagar relieved; God "opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water," when Ishmael was dying of thirst. "She went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink." Mother-like, she never thought of herself, of her own sorrows and wants. She devoted herself to her son, who became the "father of twelve princes," the progenitor of the Arabs, who, to this day, keep possession of the wilderness where Hagar wandered with her son Ishmael. Poetry and painting have made this scene of her life memorable. It happened B. C. 1898.

HANNAH,

WAS wife of Elkanah, a Levite, and an inhabitant of Ramah. Her history, as given in scripture, is very brief, but full of interest and instruction. Elkanah had another wife, as was not uncommon among the Israelites, a practice their law tolerated though it never approved. Hannah was the beloved wife, but she had no children; and her rival, who had, taunted her with this sterility. The picture of this family gives a vivid idea of the domestic discord caused by polygamy. Hannah was fervent in faith towards God, and when she went up to the temple to worship, prayed earnestly for a son, and "wept sore." Eli the priest thought she was drunken; but on her explanation, blessed her, and she believed. The prayer of Hannah was granted; she bore a son, and named him Samuel - that is, "asked of God." She had vowed, if a son were given her to "lend him unto the Lord," or dedicate him to the service of the temple. Her tenderness as a mother is only exceeded by her faith towards God. She nursed her son most carefully, but he is nursed for God. Her zeal and piety appear to have been transfused into his nature; from his birth he was "in favour with the Lord, and also with men." No wonder he was chosen to be among the most illustrious of God's people. The last of her judges; the first of a long line of prophets; eminent as well for wisdom in the cabinet as for valour in the field; uncorrupted and incorruptible in the midst of temptations; Samuel's name stands distinguished not only in the annals of Israel, but in the history of all our race. Grotius has compared him to Aristides, others to Alcibiades, and all have celebrated his lofty and patriotic character. And these great qualities, these wonderful powers, directed to good purposes, were but the appropriate sequel to his mother's fervent prayers and faithful training; and God's blessing, which will follow those who earnestly seek it.

HECUBA,

SECOND wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of Hector and Paris, was, according to Homer, the daughter of Dymas; but according to Virgil, of Cisseis, king of Thrace, and sister of Theais, priestess of Apollo at Troy during the war. After the capture of Troy, B. C. 1184, she attempted to revenge the death of her son Polydorus, and was stoned to death by the Greeks. Some say that she became a slave to Ulysses, and that he left her in the hands of her enemies, who caused her to be stoned. It is probable, however, that Ulysses himself was the cause of her death; as it is recorded, that upon his arrival in Sicily, he was so tormented with dreams, that in order to appease the gods, he built a temple to Hecate, who presided over dreams, and a chapel to Hecuba. Euripides, in his tragedy of "Hecuba," has immortalized this unfortunate mother and queen.

HELEN,

THE most beautiful woman of her age, was the daughter of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, and Leda,

his wife. When very young she was carried off by Theseus, king of Athens, a celebrated hero of antiquity, by whom she had a daughter. Notwithstanding this her hand was eagerly sought, and she numbered among her suitors all the most illustrious and distinguished princes of Greece. The number of her admirers alarmed Tyndarus, who feared for the safety of his kingdom; but the wise Ulysses, withdrawing his pretensions to Helen, in favour of Penelope, niece of Tyndarus, advised him to bind by a solemn oath all the suitors, to approve of the uninfluenced choice which Helen should make, and to unite to defend her, if she should be forced from her husband. This advice was followed, and Helen chose Menelaus, king of Sparta. For three years they lived very happily, and had one daughter, Hermione. Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, visiting Menelaus, saw Helen, and persuaded her, during her husband's absence at Crete, to fly with him to Troy.

All the former suitors of Helen, bound by their oath, took up arms to assist Menelaus in recovering her. They succeeded in taking Troy, B. C. 1184, when Helen regained the favour of her husband and returned with him to Sparta. After the death of Menelaus, Helen fled to Rhodes. Polyxo, queen of Rhodes, detained her; and to punish her for being the cause of a war in which Polyxo's husband had perished, had her hung on a tree. Euripides has made Helen the subject of a tragedy.

HERO,

A PRIESTESS of Venus at Sestos, on the coast of Thrace. She saw Leander, a youth of Abydos, at a festival in honour of Venus and Adonis at Sestos, and they became in love with each other. The sacred office of Hero, and the opposition of her relatives, prevented their marriage; but every night Leander swam across the Hellespont, guided by a torch placed by Hero in her tower. At length he perished one night in the attempt, and Hero, while waiting for him, saw his lifeless body thrown by the waves at the foot of her tower. In her desperation, she sprang from the tower on the corpse of Leander, and was killed by the fall.

HERSILIA,

WIFE of Romulus, the founder of Rome, B. C. 753, was deified after her death, and worshipped under the names of Horta or Orta.

HIPPARCHIA,

A CELEBRATED lady at Maronea, in Thrace, who lived about B. C. 328. She was at one time mistress to Alexander the Great; but her attachment to learning and philosophy was so great, that having attended the lectures of Crates, the cynic, she fell in love with him, and resolved to marry him, though he was old, ugly, and deformed; and though she was addressed by many handsome young men, distinguished by their rank and riches. Crates himself was prevailed upon by her friends to try to dissuade her from her singular choice, which he did, by displaying to her his poverty, his cloak of sheep's skins, and his crooked back; but all in vain. At last, he told her that

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